Smooth

by catt dahman

  “Gotcha. On it.”

  Thanks, Jake.”

  “Hey, Boss, I’m getting a list of all who are here and the rooms each will be in so that we can keep up with and find whomever we need when we need them.”

  Annie rushed by with Katie and a black kitten trailing her. When Coral pointed to the animals, Annie chuckled, “We found Blackie, and she’s taking a liking to Katie; they follow me everywhere….”

  “Good. We need a list.”

  “Okay, I’ve got things to do,” Pax said as he started to walk away.

  Coral snagged his shirt. “Pax?”

  “Yeah, Boss?”

  “Why do all of you call me that? Why is everyone asking me what to do?” Coral asked quietly. “I have no idea what I’m doing here.”

  “Well, don’t tell anyone that because we think you know exactly what you’re doing, and we trust you. Roll with it, Coral,” Pax whispered back, “and I’ve got things to do, Boss,” he called over a shoulder.

  Chapter 2

  Coral found Oren helping with the blocking off of the back doors. He had already begun before Dan approached him. Coral admired how the police chief had people helping and how well they had blocked off the windows and doors in the back. “Oren, why aren’t you leading this raggedy group?”

  “I can follow the law and arrest the bad guys, but I’ve never been a leader, Coral. You are what everyone needs right now. You give people hope.”

  “All of you have gone crazy. You’re nutty.”

  “Maybe so.”

  “If you want to lead, then tell me to get out of your way, and I will, okay?”

  “It’s a deal,” Oren said, “hey, I promised Ronnie we’d talk when she got back. Where is she?”

  Coral shook his head and finally met Oren’s eyes. “Down Jobie’s street; it’s flooded out over the roofs of the far houses. They got into some type of trouble, and the cruiser is under water.”

  “Did you see them?”

  “If they got out, then I don’t know where they went. The apartments are above water, but I don’t think they would have left the car. Something I just feel in my gut. I’m sorry Oren, and maybe I’m wrong, but….”

  Oren clenched his jaw and nodded. He stood for a second, staring into space and looking a little confused; his face had lost the pinched, tight look and had relaxed.

  In a second, he turned back to Coral and studied his face. He looked as if he were trying to puzzle something out: the lines returned around his eyes and mouth, the crease between his eyes came back, and sadness came back to his face again. “Ronnie,” he said finally.

  “Oren? Are you all right?”

  “Awe, Coral. That’s part of why I can’t lead anything. I got wet, just a little on my leg, but more and more I keep having times when I forget for a second what I’m doing, and I just zone out, as the kids would say. I guess one time I’ll do it, and that’ll be it for me,” he said as he made a face like a naughty child.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know just a little bit of the water would do that.”

  “So it seems,” Oren said, “I think it must be like what some people go through…oldtimers…altimer….”

  “Alzheimer’s.”

  “Yup.”

  Coral shivered. “Try to hang on, Oren. I may have been elected the leader when I wasn’t paying attention, but I need your help.”

  “I’m glad Ronnie doesn’t have to watch me do this. It isn’t even bad, just relaxing a minute and forgetting and not even thinking; it’s pretty good. Thinking, well, it hurts like hell, doesn’t it?” He rubbed a hand through his hair and then wiped at his eyes.

  “Sometimes it does at that.”

  “It about killed me when Darla died, but I had to raise Ronnie, and that kept me busy. A parent isn’t supposed to outlive his child. That isn’t the right way, and Coral, it hurts something fierce, as if there’s something in my chest ripping its way out. That’s grief.”

  “I’m sorry, Oren. That doesn’t fix anything, but I sure am sorry.”

  “I know. To be honest, I kind of hope this thing…whatever it is…runs the course and burns out my brain.”

  “No, Oh, naw….”

  “Yeah, I do hope it all burns away. It hurts too much. I’d rather be smooth. Coral, you lost your parents early and have been on your own a while. Losing Darla and now Ronnie, I’m just tired of hurting, and, Son, I have now seen the other side, and it’s awfully nice. But for now, I better work on blocking this area.”

  “Oh, yeah, I guess,” Coral said, “I’m sorry, Oren.”

  “It ain’t you that done it. All this, I think it is nature cleaning itself up and eliminating the blight,” said Oren as he winked, “we’re the blight.”

  “I don’t believe that. We’re humans, we can love and dream, and that means nature shouldn’t get rid of us.”

  “Bullshit, Coral. We are a blight.” Oren lifted his shoulders a little. He looked tired and had hollows beneath his eyes. “I need to get this all fixed up to keep us safe.”

  “I know you’re the best for this.”

  “Thanks, Coral.” Oren went back to moving things and covering the back doors and windows so that no one could possibly get inside.

  Had Coral watched Oren, he would have noticed that the man went blank for a minute or so every hour, and then, later it was about every fifty-five minutes and then every fifty minutes.

  And if Coral had been watching, he would have seen that as it happened, Oren began to wait for it almost expectantly, and that it lasted a fraction longer each time. And he would have seen that after a while, Oren didn’t just accept those moments of being smooth, but he craved them.

  Coral wouldn’t understand giving it all away.

  Chapter 3

  Pax rubbed at his itchy skin, had a bit of a fantasy about hot clothes, shaving cream, and a sharp razor, and rolled out of bed. He always felt a little damp, kind of cold, never clean, and sleep deprived, seldom deep or refreshing. He went to bed tired and awakened almost as tired.

  They had been here for days.

  And at least he went to sleep with and woke up with Annie, sometimes beside him, sometimes curled around his body to stay warm. Pax hadn’t had a chance to take her to a movie or to dinner or to have a normal relationship with her. They were subjected to clinging to one another to stay warm and lying there together, listening to the rain patter.

  He pulled at the pile of blankets, pulling them up on her, and Annie, on her stomach, lost in exhaustion, didn’t stir. Brushing a strand of hair from her face, he watched her sleep, the frown lines on her face set even during slumber. This wasn’t how he wanted life to be with her; Pax felt cheated of his happily-ever-after.

  He didn’t have to look out the window because he knew it would look much as it had the day before and the day before that because not once during the night had the pattering of rain stopped. It made his head ache to hear the constant droning and random rumbles of thunder; it disrupted his sleep, it grated on his nerves, and it never stopped.

  Here on the fifth floor, there was nowhere else to go, and while they could have slept on the third or fourth floors without any problems, Annie said she couldn’t sleep at all if she were that close to the floodwaters below; she wanted distance between herself and the water. The glass of the window wasn’t far enough away from the water.

  Pax couldn’t bring himself to touch the glass with the water streaming on the other side. He raised his hand but didn’t touch the glass.

  “Just stop,” he whispered.

  To the north, Pax could see the ruined grocery store where they might try to get food when they needed more, and at the other end of the block was Coral’s diner.

  Presumably the family that stayed behind still hid, and the bound prisoners died of thirst and hunger in Coral’s storeroom although no one spoke of that little thing.

  Coral said his diner might have a few feet of water in it by now and that those tied and cuffed people would have drowned. Pax shiv
ered. They had left them to face whatever happened with their hands and feet bound.

  To the east, Pax saw the tops of buildings, he should have been seeing the gas station and the other tall hotel, but there was nothing there but empty water. There were no buildings, no streets, no riverbanks, and certainly no stone bridge.

  To the west was the park and baseball field and beyond that were a farm road, farm houses, and farm fields of food, but Pax saw nothing but water.

  It was all gone.

  And it still rained.

  If he had been able to look north or had gone to another window to look out, he would have seen the same flood water there as well, dotted here and there with a wet roof and broken at times by big trees floating past, bloated pets, occasional cars, and the swollen carcasses of entire cow herds. Human bodies swept along with the current.

  “Pax?”

  “Try to sleep a little longer. It’s early.”

  Annie turned on her side and clung to his pillow as she fell back asleep. Pax thought that maybe sleeping was an escape for her, but he didn’t blame her for taking a way out. He would do the same if he were able. Katie looked at Pax and curled around her kitten, Blackie to go back to sleep.

  Downstairs, Lydia and Dana were serving the last of the eggs and big mugs of hot coffee or glasses of orange juice. Dana pointed to a big plate of buttered toast and told Pax to help himself. “Did anyone sleep?”

  Dana’s eyes were glassy and smudged beneath with purple circles; she shook her head. Lydia said that she had a little but that Sammy had been out cold. She was one of the few able to sleep, despite the constant noise of the rain. “She can sleep through about anything.”

  “Must be nice,” Pax said.

  “I know,” Lydia agreed, “I watch her and wish I could be out cold once in a while.” She laughed.

  “How is everything else?”

  Coral sighed, “We had a suicide, two went out a window, and I guess that’s three suicides. One was the hotel manager and then the other two were tourists.”

  “Damn. They went out a window?”

  “Yup. Knocked it out and jumped. They got angry and fought.”

  Pax stretched. They sat on chairs around tables from the rooms. “They lost hope, I guess. We have to keep the hope. This situation has to get better, right?”

  “You’d think,” Lydia said.

  The first floor was underwater, and they had moved everything they could upstairs, but while they had their food and medical supplies, they wouldn’t last forever. The survivors didn’t have the kitchen now to cook meals, so they had to make small, controlled fires to cook. Boiling water was a lengthy, difficult, and dangerous process.

  In the last four days, the lower floor had flooded, and the second floor was beginning to fill. The beautiful old hotel was ruined by the nasty water, which flooded in and filled with sewage, trash, carcasses, and mud. Fabrics and antiques fell apart.

  “We’ll have to move things up again,” Coral said tiredly. Maybe we need to go ahead and take all of the stuff up to five, not that the water will come up that far. Someone should be here to rescue us soon, but we can take things up that far just to be on the safe side.”

  “Just stop,” Dana snapped.

  “What?” Coral asked.

  “Coral, we’ve listened for days about how the rain has to stop, it can’t keep raining, someone is gonna come get us, and this can’t continue. Well, it’s bullshit. You hear me? Coral, that is just bullshit.”

  “Dana….”

  “Shut up, Lydia. You know it, too.” Dana slammed the coffee carafe down on a table and stared for a second at the plate of toast. They had potatoes, a makeshift fire pit to cook in, and some pasta and vegetables in cans. She looked at a small can of oranges, picked it up, and threw it like a baseball at a wall. “It’s all bullshit. It had been from the start. We should have been outside or gone outside and let it happen.”

  “You’re talking crazy,” Lydia said.

  “We have done all of this to keep from getting messed up by the rain, and then you go and say that?” Pax huffed.

  “Yeah, I’m saying we should have gone with it in the beginning, and then we wouldn’t be here scared to death, worried about the rain, and wondering when someone will come save us.”

  “And? So?” Lydia prodded

  “We’d be better off smooth,” Dana said it quickly.

  “Really? You really want to be like this?” asked Dan as he walked in, dragging Oren with him, by pulling at the older man’s shirtsleeve.

  Oren was fully blank; his face looked twenty years younger, as that of a child with no worries. If reminded, he would use the bathroom on his own and eat if food were set in front of him, using his hands but not utensils. He didn’t speak or act on his own. “Oren, tell me who Ronnie is.”

  “Dunno.”

  “She’s dead Oren. Your daughter is,” Dan said it and wiped tears that streamed down his face.

  “Okay.”

  “You remember being chief of police? Hanging out with us at Brody’s bar? You remember your wife? No?”

  “No.”

  “See? He’s blank, Dana. He’s nothing,” Dan snapped.

  “Ask Oren if he minds it.” Dana was furious, not because of any rain on her, but because of the rain itself.

  She faced the old man, “Do you mind, Oren? Is it that bad? Do you still mourn your wife and daughter? No? Do you worry and toss in the bed and cry and are you waiting to go mad or drown? No?” She spun. “He don’t care, Dan, but guess what? I’m scared shitless.”

  “Everyone is afraid, Dana,” Dan snapped. Gus and some of the others heard the shouting and came to listen and watch.

  “Stop doing that shit to Oren,” Pax demanded, sickened by the display.

  “Shut up,” Dane screamed at Dan, “Oren isn’t afraid. Do you get it yet?”

  “I get it,” Coral said, “I get it all. I thought you were tough, but you’re just a whiner, Dana. Stop screaming and raving.”

  “Oh, this is the ‘motivate Dana’ speech when I realize how silly I am being, and I buck up? Sorry, it ain’t happening, Coral. That was four days ago,” she spat, “besides, I’m right anyway.” She laughed.

  George came in and frowned at Dana.

  “If we’re gonna move things, then we better move, now. Marnie says to tell you that the girl Carrie’s arm is infected, and Marnie and Tina can’t get seem to get it straight.

  They said they don’t think they have the right antibiotics. David’s bites are infected, too. Rodney’s cough has gone deeper; Tina says he has pneumonia,” George announced. “Bad as things are, they’re suffering. My chest is hurting. Etta said I should tell you that, too.”

  “And we’d not be suffering if we had gone into the rain that night and gone smooth,” Dana said, making her point.

  Pax ignored her and asked Coral what they should worry about moving.

  “All the food. Medical supplies. Towels, blankets, everything,” said Coral as he joined the rest to start hauling everything up the stairs to the top floor. He didn’t feel like arguing anymore. Everyday the water was deeper, no one had come for them, and if Sammy were right about what she had learned on the Internet and television, then no one was coming. They needed the rain to stop.

  It had to stop.

  Chapter 4

  Annie gave Pax a wave as she came out of their room. Blackie, in her arms, suddenly went poker-stiff, her hair standing on end as she hissed and scratched. Annie let her go, and she ran, with Katie back into the room, scooting under the bed. Katie whined and looked prepared to defend Blackie.

  The scream peeled down the hall again. Coral ran head long down the hall with Pax with Dan right behind him. Gus and Mark trailed them. The door was locked, so Coral stepped back a few feet and barreled into it, knocking it open as easily as he had knocked members of the opposing football team off their feet.

  A family of four was staying in this room. The woman stood in the center of the room, her h
ands up as if pleading to her husband. He was beside the bed, next to a little girl he had beaten with the leg of one of the chairs he had broken. Her head was little more than pulp, her bones broken. Bright red was pooled under her, covered her, and streaked the man’s bare chest and boxer shorts.

  It was impossible to miss the bloody teeth that had flown out of her mouth and landed on the old brownish carpet. Her little arms, twisted and snapped, were to each side of her as if she had been making a snow angel on the covers of the bed.

  White globs of what looked like mashed potatoes were all over the room.

  At the woman’s feet was a small boy, hardly more than a baby, his bottle dropped beside his crushed skull. His mother slumped to the floor to gather her child into her arms, wailing.

  “What the hell?” Coral demanded.

  The man, his eyes lost in fury, actually growled as saliva dripped to his chest and as he brandished the leg of the chair for a threat. He didn’t seem to recognize those who had run into the room, his wife, or the children. Beside Coral, Pax groaned, “He’s gotten wet.”

  Before Coral and Pax could tackle the man, Gus fired a shot, dropping the man. A neat hole appeared in the man’s chest as a bigger hole slammed out of his back. Gus, taking a few steps closer, shot once more into the man’s head.

  “We had it, Gus.”

  “You didn’t have it without a gun out and his being shot,” Gus argued.

  “We weren’t gonna shoot him, just….”

  “Coral, you can’t tie people up and store them every place we go.”

  “We can’t just kill them, either.”

  Gus motioned to the little girl and said, “Tell her that.”

  Sara and her husband, Mitch, had gotten the woman and her baby out of the room. Annie came in with an update. “She says she was in the bathroom and left all three asleep in the bed.”

  “Look, ” Coral stepped back, “we need to get out of here, out of the room.”

  “The body?” Pax asked, confused.

  “Not our problem.” Coral pushed them back with his body. “Look there.”

  They all followed his finger and stared at the ceiling. Pieces of the plaster had been soaked by the rain and were falling in sticky globs all over the room.